PANAJI
The Grand Old Man of Goan Writing in English, Lambert Mascarenhas, passed away in Goa on Sunday, barely three months short of his 107th birthday. He was the author of the widely-noticed work ‘Sorrowing Lies My Land’, freedom-fighter, editor and journalist.
His death was quickly noted among journalistic and literary circles especially those studying Goan writing as far away as in Brazil and Portugal, as also among members of the diaspora, and others.
Lambert was particularly known for being founder-editor of the ‘Goa Today’ magazine, his early role in post-Liberation English-language journalism in Goa, and his role as a freedom fighter in the city of Bombay.
Since its launch in 1966, ‘Goa Today’ the monthly he was founder-editor of and co-founded (with Dan Dantas) grew into a prominent voice and magazine-of-record of Goa, but specifically for diasporic Goan communities scattered across the globe. For long, it was the lone monthly from Goa.
The Goa Today was run by Mascarenhas till the 1980s, when it was sold to the Salgaocars. It faced a suspension of publication just last month due to pandemic-related pressures and other issues, amidst sharp concern over its possible demise.
Prior to his widely-noticed stint at ‘Goa Today’, he was the joint-editor of ‘The Navhind Times’, set up in 1963. He was earlier assistant editor and editor of the Bombay-based ‘Goan Tribune’, which campaigned for the end of Portuguese-rule in Goa; sub-editor at the ‘Bombay Sentinel’ under the noted B G Horniman, and he started his career with the ‘Morning Standard’.
His book ‘Sorrowing Lies My Land’ has come out in multiple editions, and was considered a classic, depicting life in rural Goa in Portuguese times. The book lyrically narrated the impact of the Salazar regime and colonialism on Goa.
“Sorrowing... covers the time span from roughly 1910 to about 1950. It is a political novel whose message is that the people of Goa under the Portuguese rule were denied basic civil rights such as freedom of speech and assembly, and those who protested were quickly punished or imprisoned,” Canada-based Ben Antao, who worked on Mascarenhas’ teams in Bombay and Goa, has said.
Peter Nazareth, the editor of the first anthology in English on Goan writing, said at one time he “did not know anything about Goan literature except for Lambert Mascarenhas’s ‘Sorrowing Lies My Land’.”
His other works include ‘The First City’, ‘In The Womb of Saudade’, the play ‘The Greater Tragedy’ and ‘Heartbreak Passage’. He won the Gomant Vibhushan and the Padma Shri, in 2015. On his 100th birthday, a seminar was held at the Institute Menezes Braganza to celebrate the legacy of the writer-journalist.
Known by his penname of LaMas, his monthly writings in his magazine, including columns, were eagerly awaited in times when the media still worked with letter-press technologies.
“So many happy memories of my dear friend and a great son of Goa,” commented Mervyn Maciel, 93, a former Saloi (Goa)-origin government officer in Kenya, now based in the United Kingdom said in a message via cyberspace.
Born on September 17, 1914, he is survived by his wife Dr Jolly Mascarenhas, children Nayantara (late Noel da Lima Leitao), Ameeta, Jude and Anjali (Stefan Maus). He is the grandfather of six (Alisha/Naveen, Chantal, Nicole/JJ, Tara/Nolan, Nicholas, Divya/Daniel, Akash and Mark), and has one great-grandchild Zara.
“Dad lived more lifetimes than most. And we were grateful to have him with us for so long, and that he died peacefully,” his daughter Ameeta said in a note. The funeral is to be held on Monday, June 28, at the Taleigao cemetery in the presence of close family, due to Covid pandemic restrictions.
